Astonishing Spider-Man
by NullJaegar
Summary: My own run of Spider-Man separate from all others. Peter Parker recalls the tale of his origin and greatest adventures, starting from the very beginning.
1. Humble Beginnings

My name is Peter Parker but you probably know me better as "The Spectacular Spider-Man", Spidey, or your friendly neighborhood menace. I may seem like some glamorous hero in the news, saving cats from trees, getting the key to the city, you get the gist. The truth is, though: things weren't always like this for me. It took time before I understood how to use my power and it wasn't easy. So that's why I'm here; to explain it in pain staking detail.

"Peter, get off your ass! School starts in thirty minutes!" I could hear Uncle Ben yell from downstairs, his Brooklyn accent clear as ever.

"I-I'm up!" I had fallen asleep at my desk again. I struggled lift my head up but when I did the site of homework covered in drool awaited me. "Not again," I thought. "I'll just hope no one notices." I reluctantly stood up and made my way to my backpack. "Good thing I slept in my clothes," I continued my thought, then looked down. "How did my pants come off?" I grabbed my pants and backpack, and walked over to the bathroom while putting my pants on. The bathroom was clean and organized thanks to May's OCD.

I groaned as I looked into the bathroom mirror. "Handsome as ever, Peter" I mumbled to myself sarcastically. "No time for deodorant" I glanced at the febreze on the toilet.

I ran down the stairs and looked at my phone. "Ok, I still have twenty minutes. I can make it." I ran past the kitchen and straight to the front door.

"Peter Parker, you will not leave this house without eating the meal May prepared for you." Uncle Ben said, raising his voice. I sighed, turned around, and sat down at the table.

"I'm gonna be late for school you know." I informed him, snarkily.

"Now who's fault is that?" Ben sat down at the table next to me and started digging into the pancakes May prepared.

"I keep telling you to wake me up earlier."

"And I keep telling you to set your own alarms. I won't always be there to wake you up." He stuffed his face, Ben always loved Aunt May's cooking. "Start eating, you'll just be later."

"I'm already going to be late so there's no point."

"Peter, you've got to be more responsible. If you keep missing your classes your grades will suffer."

"I just don't see the point of showing up if they can't teach me anything I don't already know." I took my first reluctant, bite into my pancake.

"I didn't see the point of going to school when I was your age either. But then I met Ben in Junior year, and I use what I learned a lot more than I thought I would." May said as she sat down on my other side and comforted me.

"That doesn't make things any easier for me." Uncle Ben sat there thinking for a minute as I finished my pancakes. He put his hand on my shoulder.

"Come on, I'll walk you to school."

"I can get there myself."

"I know, genius. I just want to talk." He walked me to the door.

"Ben! You didn't finish your food." Aunt May shouted.

"I'll be back to finish those.'" Uncle Ben smiled lovingly, then continued walking me out the door.

"So.. What did you want to talk to me about?" I looked at my shoes, expecting him to lecture me.

"Follow me." Ben began walking on the sidewalk in the direction of Midtown High. He walked with his hands in his jacket, his pace steady. I walked behind him, sluggishly. "May loves you, you know. She treats you like her own son. Least you could do is show a little appreciation to the care she has for you."

"I know." We made our way through an alley and climbed over a fence-a shortcut he had showed me before.

"Back when I was your age I skipped school a lot too. Thought I had the world figured out."

"I don't think I know everything."

"Then why the hell do you keep skipping school? You have a bright future ahead of you but you keep sabotaging your own life. Don't think I don't know the reason you keep sleeping in. It's no mistake you keep 'forgetting' to set an alarm." Ben stopped walking and so did I. He took his hands out of his jacket and put them on my shoulder. "You have your father's mind and his ambition. All I'm asking is that you take a little initiative."

"Fine, I will. I can walk the rest of the way by myself." I hurried off so he couldn't follow me. "If I keep walking with him he'll just lecture me." I thought. "He doesn't understand me. No one does."


	2. Norman Osborn

Inserted from Norman Osborn's personal log*

I woke up at my desk with my cell phone in my lap. My tie came undone and my hair was all over the place. My lab assistant Curtis Connors and I had worked all night on the project. We'd been developing gene splicing technology for years, and finally we'd come close to realizing our goal of creating the perfect specimen. I stood up putting my right foot forward, trying to keep the pressure off of my bad leg. I flicked the light switch.

The lights started flickering and then turned on one by one. As the darkness slowly disappeared and the light of the room revealed itself I was once again greeted with our run down working space. Lab coats on the floor, dead test subjects rotting away in a trash bag in the corner of the room, and Curtis sleeping on the floor with an iguana resting on his shoulder. This lab was an embarrassment to me, to the Osborn name. "I should be living in a mansion with no care in the world. I should be making my son proud." I thought.

I was beginning to lose hope in this childish dream. Years of work to seemingly no end. Curtis always reassured me, he was a good partner. I would've been lost without him. He always reassured me that the ends would justify the means. It felt like we were almost there, we were closer than ever to achieving our goal. Yet still stuck at a dead end of failed experiment after failed experiment.

I carefully walked over to the microscope, supporting myself with the objects in the room. I grabbed the metallic container under the microscope. "You're the key to my success, little guy. Because of you the Osborn name will go down in history." I said in my tired, old, scratchy voice as I opened the container to get one more good look at our spider.


	3. Harry

"Late again, Parker?" Mrs. Hakim said looking up at me from her book, her scratchy voice urking me the wrong way. Mrs. Haikimi always rubbed me the wrong way when I talked to her. There was something about her, I could hear judgement and sass in her voice.

"Guilty as charged, Ms." I responded to her in a monotone voice. I looked at my feet again trying to avoid confrontation. I stood there for a second waiting for her to give me directions for class or something but she just went back to her book. "Uh.. I guess I'll sit down now." I looked back at the class and they were screwing around slacking off like always.

I sat down in my seat next to Harry. "Hey Harry." Harry observed me carefully and then chuckled, covering his mouth with his hand.

"What?" I smirked.

"You just seem like you're having a good day." Harry adjusted his posture and crossed his legs. "I mean, really, your messy hair makes you look like Jimmy Neutron and..." Harry grabbed my arm, lifted, then sniffed it and winced.

"you smell like Febreze, and you're wearing the same clothes as yesterday." I chuckled at first but then my smile faded.

"Yeah... I'm not having the best day. I had another argument with Uncle Ben this morning."

"Aw man. I'm sorry. You know he just wants the best for you, right?"

"I'm not so sure about that. It just seems like he hates me." I looked down at my feet again, I wasn't comfortable talking about my family life, even with Harry.

"At least Ben isn't a deadbeat like my dad." The two of us sat there for a minute in silence and then the bell rang. We walked down the hall together to our chemistry class.

"Hey there, virgins." Flash said as he walked in front of Harry and me in the hallway. I avoided eye contact with him. There was no point arguing with him. He was a spoiled brat with rich parents. If I even touched this kid once, I bet he would've sued me or denied it entirely.

"What do you want now, Flash?" Harry groaned while glaring at Flash. His arms were hanging and he was slouching.

"That's rude way to greet a friend." Flash put his hand on Harry's shoulder and Harry got visibly upset. "I'm just here to talk to my two favorite deadbeats." Flash mocked Harry in an obnoxious voice and all his mindless sidekicks started laughing.

The next three hours were mainly spent with me watching the clock and Harry sleeping on my shoulder.

Then the final bell rung and Harry woke up and said in a tired, mumbling voice "No Ms. I wasn't sleeping."

"Harry, class is over." I snickered.

"Oh shit really?" He had one eye open and the other closed with as he greeted me with an innocent grin.

"Come on, I can't spend another minute here without going completely insane." Harry stood up and we walked out of the school together.

"Pete, can you help me with my homework today?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course. I don't have anything better to do." I began walking in the direction of Harry's house but then he grabbed my arm.

"My dad's been busy lately, I'm not sure if we should hang out there. Do you wanna do this at Mr. Aziz's instead? I'll pay." I considered this for a minute and then looked at him deep in his eyes.

"Harry, we both know you can't afford it. Plus, your dad is a genius, he can help us." Harry looked very uncomfortable. "If that's okay with you."

"Whatever. It's fine. He readjusted his backpack and started walking away.


	4. Fateful Introduction

We arrived at Harry's front porch. I always loved coming here, I swear they had the biggest house in all of Queens. Harry never talked about his family much but I could tell he was rich. I always assumed it was because of his dad's inventions but Harry always avoids the subject.

Harry pulled his keychain out of his pocket, he had five keys that were each different sizes. They probably had more property than just this house. Harry took a minute trying to find the right key, in the meantime I was catching a cold. If not for Uncle Ben this morning I would've been able to grab a jacket. Maybe he was trying to help, but it sure is hard to see anything positive coming out of this when you're slowly getting frostbite.

Harry finally found the right key and opened the door. I rushed in and fell on my knees. "Oh, sweet air conditioning. I'll never take you for granted again!" Harry snickered and walked over to his kitchen.

"You want anything?" He asked as he grabbed a toaster strudel from his cupboard.

"Do you have hot cocoa?" I chuckled while standing up, finally recovered from the cold.

"One hot chocolate coming up." Harry imitated a bar tender. I smirked at him as I walked around. There was something about Harry's house that was so enchanting to me. Though I imagine it must seem pretty normal to him, after living in what felt like a walk-in closet my whole life, this open space felt like another dimension. The hallways went on forever and continued to lead to more and more rooms.

"Pete, you're wondering off again." As soon as Harry said that I turned around and looked at him. "Your hot chocolate's ready, man." I sat down at the counter and started drinking. I sat there for a second wondering if I should ask Harry what was happening with Flash. Maybe it was none of my business. I decided in the end that

"So... Flash."

"What about him?" I could tell Harry was upset talking about this. He always hid his mouth behind his arms and got this primal look in his eyes that screamed 'I'm gonna kill you' when he got upset. I was scared at first and I didn't want to say anything but as Harry's friend I felt obligated to do something.

"Well, after he was done acting like a stereotypical bully character from a Disney sitcom." I stuttered and tried to fake a laugh to break tension. "I saw him whisper something to you. Does he have something on you?" Harry sat there for a second, thinking and then he took a bite of his toaster strudel.

"Peter, you really need to learn to stop meddling with things you don't understand. It's nothing. Come on let's do our homework." I looked at Harry, concerned.

"Alright." I sighed.

Harry didn't contribute much to the homework, which was normal. School wasn't Harry's strong suit. He taught me how to dress at school, where to go when I need something and how to talk to people. And I helped him with school, looking into colleges, etc. We were a good team, he needed me and I needed him.

I put away my books in my backpack and stood over Harry as he sat down thinking. "Do you mind if I say hi to your dad?"

"Yeah. Whatever." Harry lied down. "Thanks for coming over, Pete."

"You're going to bed? It's only eight."

"Mhm." Harry closed his eyes.

"Bye."

"Mhm."

I left his room, ran down the stairs. I opened the glass door and knocked on the bunker in the backyard. I heard a couple of banging noises and then the door opened. Before me stood Norman Osborn looking like he hadn't slept in a week. "Peter! Good to see you." He tried to bring in some of his businessman charm but I could tell he was on the brink of falling asleep.

"Can I come in and see what you're working on?"

"Peter, you're always welcome to come work with me after all you've done for Harry." Norman said kindly. walked in and looking at all the equipment made me feel a childish wonder. "Come, let me show you how much progress we've made since you last visited." I looked around.

"Where's Dr. Connors?"

"Oh, I gave him a day to spend with his son." He lifted a metal cover off of a cage and showed me a spider. Not just any spider though, this one was deformed. It had human fingers instead of spider legs.

"No way! You got the gene splicing to work!" I looked through the cage in awe. I had a big grin on my face and I was practically drooling. When I realized I was doing this I stood up straight and tried to look professional.

"We inserted human DNA into the spider eggs and this was the result."

"So have you done this with any other animals? Humans?"

"Not yet. There's a few kinks to work out, but we're this close."

"Like what?" I looked confused.

"We've had a problem with balancing the amount of each respective species' genes. We've been using smaller and smaller sample sizes of human genes and a lot of the time it doesn't do anything. When we add a lot of human DNA to an animal..." He walked over to the corner and showed me a few dead black widow spiders with hearts too big for their bodies or with what looked like exploded abdomens.

I covered my mouth, obviously disgusted. Norman continued walking "The ends justify the means, Peter. Remember that. We're doing all this to make life better for us humans. Imagine if we mixed... Bat DNA with a man's. His hearing would be marvelous to say the least. We could give Curtis his arm back by mixing his DNA with a lizard. We could create a utopia, we could create the ultimate being. Evolution would no longer have to take millions of years." Norman had a crazed smile, he had worked himself up.

"You're right. All we have to find now is a consistent and less dangerous method. I assume that's why you haven't started human testing?"

"Precisely."

I put my hand on my chin and thought for a second. "What's the next planned experiment?"

"We're going to try to mix spider DNA with a mouse. Both are disposable creatures and spiders have been shown to work before."

"That won't work." I interrupted. "The key to this is that there needs to be something missing to be replaced. Look at those tarantulas. They already had hearts and when you gave them human heart DNA as well it ended in disaster. I mean, the technology you've invented is great but you can't just overlap DNA." Norman was fully alert after he heard me say this. He looked at me very seriously in my eyes.

"Why did this spider work but the others didn't?"

"Did you have different birthing areas for all the eggs?"

"Of course."

"My guess? This one was birthed next to the radioactive material you use to power your equipment. It had a birth defect and the human DNA replaced its lost legs. In short, you got incredibly lucky." Norman sat down and held his head.

"...That's very possible. What do you propose we do for the next experiment?" I walked over to his cage of mice and pointed at a pregnant mouse.

"Cut off one of it's baby's legs-this happening during a growth period might be crucial-and give it lizard DNA. Make sure not to kill it. If it regrows its leg at some point, my theory is right."

"Parker, I have gone nearly bankrupt working on this project. I have risked everything for this and I've been stuck for months. You came in today and gave me the most likely answers I've heard in years. I can't pay you, but please work with me." My jaw dropped, my idol (and my friends dad) had just asked me to work with him.

"But sir, I have school."

Osborn laughed. "You can come in after school."

"Yes sir!" I smiled. "Uhh do you know what time it is?"

He looked at his watch. "About 9:30."

"Ugh. I have to go home. Aunt May will get worried."

"No problem, Peter. I'll see you tomorrow."

I ran out the door and yelled "Thanks, Mr. Osborn! I won't let you down."

I couldn't stop reflecting on what just happened. I was so energized I sprinted. I didn't even notice that it was even colder than earlier.

When I was about a block away from May's house I heard someone scream. I peeked around the corner and saw a woman getting mugged. I stopped peaking and sat there for a second. "Why should I be responsible for this random girl?" I thought. "She's dumb for walking through that alley at this hour."

I continued walking. One of the muggers saw me and yelled "You got a problem?" I stopped in my tracks.

"N-no, just passing through."

The mugger laughed and continued. I felt bad at first but then got over it. I opened the door to Aunt May's.

"Peter." Uncle Ben was standing in front of me.

"Am I late?"

"No, Peter. Sit down on the couch with me." And so I did. "Listen, I know we've been arguing a lot lately. The reason I give you a hard time is because I want the best of you. It must feel like I don't appreciate you. But I do, and I wanted show you that by giving you something."

Aunt May came into the room with a wrapped gift. Uncle Ben sat their emotionless as I looked at the both of them confused. It was a state of the art scientific microscope. I was practically in shock.

I never understood Uncle Ben before that day. To be frank, I hated him. He was always rough on me ever since I lived there. Aunt May was like the angle on his shoulder. I always thought that if she wasn't there, he surely would've left me to die. Every time he yelled at me for something, she was there to come to my room and comfort me.

I cried and mourned my parent's death as a child and he stood there over me, like a judge deciding the fate of a criminal. He told me to be stronger, that I was being weak. That my emotions did no good. That nothing would bring them back. I had always thought he was just trying to antagonize me, but after all that's happened to me and how much of a burden I've been for them, he still stuck by me.


	5. Dr Connors

"Curtis, this is Peter Parker." Norman said, he had shaven and combed his hair since yesterday. It seemed to me like he had his energy and hope in the world reinvigorated. He was a glowing figure in the room now. He almost looked like a business man with slickback hair. Dr. Connors reached out to me for a handshake with his left hand. I looked confused for a second.

Norman went over to his computer and began typing. "It's okay, I get that a lot." Dr. Connors said, smiling. He had a fairly large gap in between his front teeth. He was middle-aged and he had a fairly obvious comb-over. All that with glasses with round frames as the cherry on top. Connors pointed at where his right arm would have been, but there was nothing up to his shoulder.

"O-oh I'm sorry." I mumbled and looked down.

Connors laughed. "Don't worry. That's why we're here after all. See-I'm hoping to regrow my own arm by mixing it with this fella's genes." He pointed at the Iguana in the cage next to him. "Most reptile species-including the Iguana-can detach their tails and regrow them like that." He snapped. The difference between Doctor Connors now and a few minutes ago was crystal clear. The way his face lit up when he talked about this was precious. It was reassuring to me. He stuttered and he talked very fast, like Porky Pig.

"If you don't mind me asking... how did you lose your arm?" The light in Dr. Connors' face faded. He took off his glasses and sat down. "I know it's probably the first question everybody asks. You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"I was a US army soldier in Iraq-I didn't want to go of course. I wanted to be with my wife. I wanted to work as a scientist, finish college, live my life. Alas, I was drafted and..." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "One day-a day seemingly like any other-I got up, did a few drills, ate with my comrades and we went to search a nearby town to see if anyone was harboring enemy soldiers." He stood up. "A wild goose chase, surely. I mean, our commander had got the information from an anonymous source with no credibility." He shook his head and closed his eyes. "Sorry for rambling."

"It's okay, what happened?"

"We entered people's houses one by one. Again and again it proved fruitless. We were just scaring families. Me and the boys joked around-of course it was bullshit. Sorry." I grinned for a moment after he said that. He started pacing. "Then at a home like any other, we found a boy with a bomb planted to his chest. He caught us off guard and detonated it. I got lucky, I was in the doorway. All I had to deal with was concrete falling on my arm. The others didn't get off that easy."

"I'm sorry."

Dr. Connors continued, not acknowledging what I said. "The medics decided that the arm was beyond saving, they cut it off and I got sent home without it." He smiled to himself. "Funny isn't it? I got to see my wife again, I got to continue my education. I got everything I ever could have wanted in my life, but I was also given the greatest challenge in my life." He stood there for a second looking at the wall. "At the time... It felt like God was mocking me, and all I want now is to be able to hold my son." He put his glasses on again and sat back down.

"We're going to make that happen. I promise you." I gave him a determined expression, staring him right in the eyes.

Norman stopped typing and walked over to us. "With you here, Peter, I don't doubt that." He put his hand on my shoulder. "Now come on, let's talk about the experiment." Norman put a lab coat on me and I almost yelled with excitement. He then lead us over to his computer and showed us a PowerPoint. "I hired Peter because within ten minutes of being in the lab, he came up with a very likely theory and an experiment that could prove it. It also takes us one step closer to regrowing your arm." Norman looked Curtis in the eyes deeply.

Dr. Connors looked surprised. "Wait, are you serious?"

"Yes. If this experiment works we can confidently start human testing." Norman opened the spider with human arms's cage. "Soon, this spider will look like a simple feat." The spider crawled out of the cage, stumbling, trying to crawl on walls but not being able to because of having human arms.

"Uh, the spider's getting away." I said.

Norman laughed. "We don't need it. We've documented everything about it. Plus, we're about to create something better." The spider crawled out of the bunker.

We discussed the details of the experiment for about two hours.

"The last thing we need to do is figure out the proper amount of Iguana DNA to use. Too little and nothing happens. Too much and it dies." I said in a worried voice.

"I believe in us." Norman smirked.

"I do too. We should celebrate the start of the science trinity. Dinner at my place?" Dr. Connors took off his lab coat and put on his jacket.

"I don't know... I don't want to worry my folks."

"Come on, Peter. Curtis's wife is an amazing cook. I never thought someone could make Ramen noodles taste so good until I visited her."

"Well, when you word it like that it's hard to refuse." I chuckled. "All right, for the team." Norman and Dr. Connors cheered me on while I took off my lab coat and put on a school hoodie. I followed Norman and Dr. Connors to the car until I felt a hand touch my back. I looked behind me and saw no one there. I continued walking.

After thirty minutes of discussing science projects Norman and Connors made when they were my age, we arrived at the apartment in Manhattan the Connors family lived in. On the drive there I couldn't help but look up at the gigantic skyscrapers. Something about these enormous structures that were above what any human could reach fascinated me. It was almost as if they were a sign that technology had surpassed what our human bodies are capable of.

I left the car and walked up the stairs leading to Dr. Connors' floor. The apartment was fairly run down. I assumed Norman couldn't pay Connors much because of the equipment and experiment costs. Norman really was risking everything for this experiment to work, and so was Dr. Connors. I was determined to not let them down.

We finally reached the right apartment and Dr. Connors unlocked the door. "Honey, I'm home." He said in a louder voice. His wife walked up. She was attractive for her age and she had her hair in a bun. She was wearing sweatpants.

"CURTIS! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME WE'D HAVE VISITORS?" She looked embarrassed and she turned around.

"Martha, I'm sorry but I just had to let Peter meet you and Billy."

Martha made a sassy face. "Peter? Who's that and why haven't I heard of him?"

"Hi, I'm Peter." I said, in a kind yet awkward tone.

"What are you two doing bring a little boy into my home?" I blushed. She walked over to the kitchen, which was an area separated from the living room only by tiles and carpet. Her walk was strange, she had her arms raised and bent and she moved her hips a ton. It was almost like duck waddling.

"Peter is our intern. He's a boy genius." Norman stepped in.

"Mhmm, bet you only hired him cause he was dumb enough to work for you for free." I snickered. "Well since you're all here I might as well feed you." Dr. Connors walked up to Martha and they kissed. Then we all sat down at the table. "Curt, tell Billy to stop being a lazy freeloader and to get down here." Curt got up and walked over to Billy's room.

Martha gave Norman and I plates of spaghetti clearly made with store-brand noodles. The sauce was homemade and had beef chunks in it though. It reminded me of Aunt May's cooking.

Dr. Connors came to the table with Billy following him. Billy looked like any other five year old boy. He rubbed his eye-he probably just woke up from a nap and looked surprised when he saw Norman and I.

"Uncle Normie!" Billy yelled as he hugged Norman. I found it strange that Billy considered Norman family at first but the more I think about it the more I realized how much Norman did for the Connors family. Billy looked at me. "Is this Harry?"

"No, I-I'm Peter." I smiled warmly at him. "I'm your father's intern."

"Yes, we decided we needed an extra hand with the project." Norman butted in. Everyone looked at Dr. Connors. "Poor choice of words." Dr. Connors laughed and everyone else followed, acknowledging that it wouldn't offend him.

"So you're actually getting something done?" Martha said, her mouth half-full of spaghetti.

"Yes, Peter is a great help so far."

"Good to meet you Peter!" Billy reached out his small hand and I shook it using two fingers only.

A few hours passed and Norman dropped me off at Aunt May's house. I opened the front door and immediately got screamed at.

"PETER, where were you?!" Aunt May looked extremely upset.

"Alright before you freak out-well you already have. I was having dinner with my boss, Norman Osborn. I'm interning for him now." Uncle Ben stood up and stopped reading. Aunt May covered her mouth. "I met him through Harry and told him a couple of theories. Things just went uphill from there."

Aunt May hugged me. "You're going to be a such a great scientist."

Uncle Ben walked over and put his hand on my shoulder. "You'd make Richard proud."

"Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it. I'm pretty beat though so I'm going to head to bead." I walked up the stairs and went into my room. I felt a sharp pain on my wrist, around where the vain is and the genetically modified spider fell onto my room's floor, dead.


	6. Shame

Inserted from Norman Osborn's personal log*

I sat on top of the roof of my personal bunker looking at the stars all night tonight. Peter Parker. That boy is something special. I've known him for years but only now has he shown his scientific genius to me.

Just in my darkest time, my lowest moment, this boy appears seemingly out of nowhere like a gift from god. There's nothing, and I mean nothing standing in my way now with Curtis and Peter on my side. I've become a weak old man. A successful weapons dealer turned into an embarrassment that wasted all of his money on a theory that hasn't gone anywhere in months. I can barely maintain myself, or Harry for that matter.

Before Peter came to visit me, I went to get groceries until on the way back a couple of kids, no older than Middle Schoolers stopped me in an alley. They had Halloween masks on to cover their faces. A couple of them had baseball bats and they surrounded me.

"Hand over everything you've got, old man!" One of the squeakers screeched at me. He was trying to intimidate me by pointing his bat at me.

"Come on, son. Don't make me call the police." I tried to calm the boy down, I didn't want to fight with kids of course.

"Guess we'll get arrested for murder then, loser! Now drop everything you have!" One of the boy's friends hit me in the back of the leg with his bat, making me kneel.

"Kid, Norman Osborn will never kneel to anyone, let alone you." I tried to stand up and one of the masked hooligans hit me in the back of the neck with the bat.

"DROP EVERYTHING YOU HAVE NOW." The kid's voice was like an opera singer, high pitched and irritating.

I grabbed my phone and started dialing before one of the kids knocked the phone out of my hand. I clenched my fist, realizing that I couldn't back down to children. I punched one of the kids in the face until he laughed me off and the kids beat me and stole my wallet.

It was humiliating. A symbol of my failure and fall from grace. My damned hip doesn't even work anymore.

Peter is the key to regaining my honor. The whole world looks down on me. Pedestrians, my ex wife, even Harry. I had to show him absolute trust. I had to show him that I believed in him, so I let the spider go. It was reckless and I couldn't stop anxiously wondering about it.


	7. Power

I woke up in the middle of the night in cold sweat. I heard this overwhelming ringing noise that was sharp and painful. It felt like I was getting stabbed in the ears. I grasped my ears tightly and stumbled off of my bed and curled up into the fetal position. I tried to stop myself from making noise, I didn't want to interrupt Ben and May's sleep. Images of the spider from yesterday flashed in my mind.

The pain gradually became stronger, blood was dripping from my ears and I stopped trying to hold them. As soon as I let go the pain overwhelmed me and I screamed. I began shaking sporadically. I could vaguely hear someone stepping up the stairs.

I opened my eyes and the whole world was spinning. Someone was approaching me cautiously, I almost thought it was the devil coming to drag me to hell. The colors of the room were starting to blend together to one dark blue mesh.

I felt someone grab my shoulder and shake me, the whole world centered on Aunt May. I grabbed her hand. I tried to talk to her but I couldn't hear myself so I shouted my words and mispronounced them. "MAY I'M DYING." Tears started dripping from my eyes. May held onto both of my cheeks tenderly.

Her mouth moved but I couldn't hear what she was saying. My eyelids slowly covered my vision like blinds. I lost consciousness.

My eyes opened, I was in a lighter room than before. I wondered if this was heaven at first but then I looked at my arms. I was in a hospital robe. I stood up quickly and detached myself from the machinery. I looked at my hand and it had a tight hold on my bed sheets. I wasn't holding it but it was sticking to my hand anyway. I grabbed my hand that was attached to the bed sheets and started to pull. I added more and more force until eventually I fell back into the wall and cracked the wall. I shook myself off as a nurse walked into the room. She looked shocked.

"You're up." She said, her voice calm but her eyes were still wide.

"W-why're you surprised?" I asked, my voice cracked. I didn't know what my condition was, but whatever that spider did to me definitely had something to do with its gene splicing. Black widow venom should not have effected me as strongly as it did. Even though it got into my viens.

"You've been in a deep coma for two weeks." I started breathing heavily. Two weeks wasn't horrible but my condition definitely had something to do with the gene splicing. I needed to tell the doctors about this, it was a breakthrough. I needed to let Uncle Ben and Aunt May know I was okay. I couldn't imagine what was happening to Harry while I was gone.

"I need to get out of here now. I have school, I have work." I started walking out the door and the nurse followed me.

"Hold on we need to check you." I sighed and looked back at her.

"I'm walking aren't I? I'm breathing? Then leave me the hell alone. I'm sure the damn bills already cost tons. The least you can do me is give me some freedom." I walked to the changing room and the nurse stopped following me. I walked to the changing room and got dressed. I few times my hands got stuck to my clothes and I ripped my shirt trying to detach my hand from it. I walked out of the hospital and it was in the middle of the day. There were girls across the street laughing at me due to my ripped shirt and skinny body.

There were houses everywhere. I was in a Queens hospital a few blocks away from Ben and May's house. I started jogging there, people noticing me and either laughing or calling me a jackass. Eventually I reached Ben and my shortcut. The fence was there and I started climbing up it, the metal was always rough on my hands but it was still the fastest way. I reached my way to the top and my hand felt a stabbing pain: the shop owner nearby put nails at the top of the fence. I started falling until I reached for the brick wall and my unbloodied hand attached to it.

I was hanging from the wall, stretching my arm out painfully. A kid in a football jersey walked by, saw me, kept walking at first then backed up.

He smiled and laughed "what are you doing?"

I groaned and tried to cross my leg to look cool. "Just hanging."

"Alright man, you just do you." He kept laughing and he walked away. I groaned and put my other hand on the wall. It stuck as well. I used all my strength to unstick the other arm. I started climbing. Before I knew it my feet were sticking to the wall too and seamlessly detaching. I got to the stop of the building and laughed. The cut in my hand had already healed itself.

"This is crazy." I said out loud, excited. There was a large gap between the roof I was on and the next building. "I can climb walls, I'm probably dead anyway, I might as well try it." I started to run, I was good at this, I learned it from running from jerks at school. I ran to the edge and nearly right as I reached it I pressed my foot down and it felt as if the world stopped for a moment as I sprung into the sky and to be honest, completely overshot my jump, I flew through the air feeling the wind flowing through my face and the absolute adrenaline from the feat filled me with a primal joy I had never before. I closed my eyes until an old lady on a walk nearly had a heart attack as I landed on my feet next to her.

I ignored her and kept doing crazy jumps on my way home. I ran across a wall and did an acrobatic trick from a tree branch.

I finally landed on our front porch and unlocked the door. Uncle Ben stood in front of me. We stood there looking at each other for a minute and then he just hugged me.

"You should probably get dressed." Uncle Ben mumbled.

"Right."

I got dressed in my gym clothes in my room. While I was in there I checked the clock. It was 4:30. School was already over but I could still make it to the internship. I rushed downstairs.

"Peter where are you rushed off to? You've been in a coma for two weeks and you can't sit down and talk to us?" Aunt May looked at me saddened.

"Listen, I do want to talk, I really do. I just need to talk with Mr. Osborn to make sure I'm still okay for the internship."

"Okay Peter." Aunt May went back to preparing a meal. Her voice had a hint of despair.

"Peter, we paid your hospital bills and it put us in even further debt than before. and we were worried you'd die. Can't Mr. Osborn wait?" I didn't want to tell Uncle Ben or Aunt May about my new abilities or the spider that bit me. They were constantly obsessing about the tiniest things in my life. These were MY abilities and if they knew about them I'd never be able to use them.

I looked at Uncle Ben and Aunt May for a minute, then walked out the door before they could stop me. What had happened to me proved that artificially evolving humans is possible. I rushed over to Harry's house, jumping from roof to roof.

I knocked on the front door of Harry's house and no one answered. This couldn't wait for Harry to come home so I crawled up the building and landed in the backyard. I knocked on the bunker door and Norman answered.

"Peter! You're okay!"

"Yeah-yeah I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be? I'm not gonna let some coma stop us." I walked in and purposefully didn't put on my lab coat. "How did the experiment go?"

"Well, see for yourself." He walked me over to a cage full of dead baby mice. "Your experiment didn't change our results. Your theory was strong and it seemed likely at the time but I don't think it's the answer we were looking for. We're back where we were before you came in." Norman had gone back to his unshaven, uncleaned, and overall unsanitary version of himself from when I first came in.

Dr. Connors looked at me. "Peter, I know we put a lot of pressure on you. I'm sorry. Maybe we were just desperate bringing you here." Dr. Connors had lost his spark, the glow and passion he had before. He lost hope.

"No, Dr. Connors you didn't make a mistake at all. It was fate that brought me here."

"What are you saying, Peter? Our work is a sinking ship and I can't pay you for your work." Norman looked at me dreadfully.

"Just watch. You know the reason I went into a coma? The spider we let go bit me." Both of them looked shocked. They stood up almost in unison. "And now." I jumped to the ceiling and stuck to it. I crawled around like a spider above them.

Dr. Connors passed out.


	8. Alone

I walked through the school hallway more confidently than usual. My powers made me feel like a different person. In fact, maybe I was. Harry didn't even recognize me in first period. I had been gone for two weeks, but I didn't expect him to forget about me entirely. I entered the cafeteria and sat down at our usual table, the one in the dirty old corner. We used to sit outside but Flash bothered us whenever we did. "Maybe it's nothing" I thought. "He'll sit with me at least, surely." I waited and waited and soon, I wasn't feeling so confident anymore. I stood up and started walking around, looking for him.

I didn't see Harry anywhere. As I was looking around my attention diverted to Gwen. She was an old friend from Middle School. I never understood why she hung out with us. Gwen was trendy and pretty, Harry and I were, well, awkward assholes who pushed everyone away. I still talked to her occasionally but as soon as High School came around she hung out with some girls that looked like they went to Hot Topic instead.

I tapped on her shoulder and immediately overthought it. "Who does that?" I thought. I wanted to punch myself. "Heyyyyy, Gwen." I tried to be charming but I felt like I was trying too hard. She turned around, and raised one of her eyebrows when she saw me.

"Hey, Peter." She said reluctantly, taking another bite of her fries.

"Uh.." I wasn't very good at talking to girls so I tried to look at the wall instead of at her. "Have you seen Harry?"

"Oh, yeah, totally. He sat alone the first day you were gone but ever since then he's been sitting outside. With Flash." She didn't seem to care much. Like it was normal. Like Flash and Harry hadn't been at each other's throats for the past few years.

"Oh." I walked away, not even bothering to finish talking to Gwen. The whole world seemed to fade away as I walked outside. All I saw was a black corridor with me on one side and Harry and Flash on the other. In reality, they were sitting at a table with a group of sheep around them cheering as they arm wrestled. Flash won, obviously but Harry seemed to laugh it off. Harry had gel in his hair and he was wearing a designer hoodie and Air Jordans. He looked like a Grade A fuck boy.

I knew I'd be baradded by social pressure as soon as I talked to Harry. Flash's friends were like a moat and Flash was the castle. Well, a rundown castle with a pompous jackass inside. I swallowed my pride and walked up to them. "Hey, Harry. Can we... talk?" I looked at him side-eyed.

"Uh huh." He sat there, cockily eating a piece of pizza.

"Away from everybody?" I tried to build a bridge across the moat. I wasn't comfortable talking about everything in front of everyone. Especially not Flash and his friends.

"What's wrong with us?" One of Flash's friends with a wide, gaping mouth that always reminded me of a hungry hippo guffawed.

"Yeah, what's wrong with them?" Harry crossed his arms and smirked. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"Talk to you later, Harry." I glared at him, then turned around and walked inside. "Alright, Harry is definitely mad at me." I thought. "I guess I'll have to sit somewhere else."

Now, in the cafeteria again I walked up to Gwen and saw an open seat next to her. "Can I sit here? Harry is being a dick." I grimaced, trying to show her how I felt.

"Oh, maybe not today. I'm saving that seat for one of my friends. Maybe tomorrow?"

"Oh, okay. That's cool." It wasn't cool. Gwen clearly didn't want my company, there were other seats she could've offered if she did. I walked away and stood in the middle of the room next to a garbage can. There I was, alone again with no one who cared about me in the whole school. Like I was before Harry took pity on me. And I didn't. Even. Know. Why. I sat down, leaning my head against the garbage, and closed my eyes.

"I have the ability to crawl on buildings, to jump higher than any olympic athlete. Maybe that would get someone to care about me." I pondered. I looked at the wall and saw that football tryouts were starting after school. All of the athletic kids at my school were popular, even though our team almost always lost.

Mr. Osborn could wait a few hours. I figured It was about time for me to use my powers for myself.

I was wearing a clunky football outfit that made me sweat ten times as much as usual. It was very uncomfortable, especially since it rode up in the crotch. It was almost like we were handicapping ourselves. There were a couple other scrawny kids like me in the room but it was mostly tall athletic kids that had probably been doing this type of thing their whole lives. I didn't have experience but I knew I could get on the team with my powers. Was it fair to the other kids? No. Was it fair that I was shunned by what felt like the whole school and now my only friend too? No, no it wasn't.

I put on my helmet, determined to get back at everyone and take the glory I deserved. Then Flash and Harry walked in and I clenched my fist. Flash and Harry looked equally surprised to see me.

"Penis Parker? Since when did you do sports? Or anything physical?" Flash was very close-minded about people. Especially me. No matter how much I tried to impress him or gain his approval he'd always say the same things about me. So why did he change his mind about Harry? Was he using Harry?

"Pete?" Harry looked confused, he didn't know if he was looking at the same person. I grinded my teeth against each other and then walked past them.

"Good luck." I murmured in a kind, but quiet voice. I couldn't hate Harry and I truly did wish him the best but I still felt neglected.

All of us stood in the middle of the field. It was frigid and my arms were exposed. The coach looked at us with his dead eyes while he sniffed. He was like the alpha wolf, looking for the weakest of the pack to get rid of first.

"Parker!" Of course he picked me. I was the shortest and the least muscular of the whole group. "Catch." He bent his arm in a 135 degree angle and then straightened his arm, taking a step forward. The ball took off and broke through the air like a fighter jet. I grabbed a nail from my pocket and tried to stab myself while the ball was taking off, all of the sudden I heard a faint ringing and the whole world slowed down. I could see the saliva from the coach's mouth slowly falling, I could see individual rain drops and leaves falling. I looked at the ball, bent my knees and took off.

I had gained control over my jumps when Dr. Connors and Mr. Osborn were observing me. I learned just the right amount of pressure and just the right angle. As I got close to the ball, my perspective of time returned to normal. I snatched the it from mid-air and landed on my feet. Then I threw it back to the coach and it took off like a bullet, he caught it but the pressure knocked him off his feet.

All the other kids were losing their minds, cheering me on or laughing. Some were frozen in shock. I snapped out of my adrenaline rush and ran towards the coach. "Are you okay, sir?" He coughed for a bit then stood up and looked upset.

"You're on the team."

I grinned. "Yes." I tried to contain my excitement. "But what about the other tests?"

"After what you just did, I don't need other tests. You're in, and you're the uarterback."

One of the older kids yelled "Maybe with him we'll actually win for once!" Everyone on the field except Flash and Harry started laughing.

I sat on the stands watching everyone else try out. Flash was picked for Defensive Tackle and one of the older kids named Diante got to be Linebacker. Harry did pretty decent so the coach made him left guard.

My teammates eventually came to the lockeroom with me and taught me handshakes for the team. Everyone told me how much they were relying on me and even acted like my friends, but I couldn't help but think about Harry the whole time. I had to put everything behind us if we were going to work together on football. The only reason I signed up in the first place is because I needed new friends, I didn't want new friends. I wanted Harry.

Diante, the linebacker put his arm on my shoulder. "Who wants to come to my place to celebrate?" Most of the team, including Harry and Flash, were pretty happy with that idea, they all started walking off until Diane noticed me still sitting there alone. "You coming?"

"Yeah, sure." I didn't want to wait for later to talk to Harry. I already stopped myself once and if I waited any longer I could've lost him. I followed him to the car.

When we got to Diante's house it was empty, clearly he planned this.

"It's been team tradition for two years now to throw these parties so think of it as an initiation." Another kid-Musafar-broke the silence.

There were bags of weed on the table and a box of beer on the counter. Now I understood why the coach wasn't invited. Harry and I looked visibly uncomfortable but also excited. I held my arms close to my sides, and boxed myself up.

"So… Who's gonna invite the girls?" Flash had his arms crossed with a cocky expression.

"I got you, fam." Rodney, the backup Quaterback pulled out his phone. Harry and I were wide-eyed, we looked at each other awkwardly. He and I weren't usually invited to parties. We also weren't used to dating or girls, besides Gwen who gave both of us our first kisses.

I avoided drinking, smoking, or talking to anyone for the next hour as more and more people came in, mostly girls in revealing clothing. I stood in the corner, trying to build up enough courage to talk to Harry. Or anyone, really. Then I sucked up my pride and walked over to Harry and Flash who were smoking pot, while Liz Allen sat on Harry's lap.

"Harry, we need to talk. Now."

"What do you want?" Harry coughed violently, put the blunt down and then closed his eyes as Liz licked his face.

"I don't know what I did to you or why you're hanging out with Flash but things clearly aren't okay

between us." I said in a serious tone, trying to yell over the music.

"Oh, it's simple. You've got a new best friend and so do I."

"What do you mean?"

"You know I hate my dad. He's an embarrassment. You've been avoiding me for the past three weeks to hang out with him." Harry avoided looking at me, and instead paid attention to Liz.

"I'm helping him with his research, Harry and even if that's true why are you hanging out with Flash of all people?"

Harry stopped looking at Liz and looked me straight in the eyes. "Flash and I were friends before you and I were. He's been telling me that he could save me from you and your faggot aura if I just dropped you for months. "I took pity on you, Parker and I suffered for it."

I started breathing heavily. Harry didn't just have to abandon me, he had to humiliate me and claim I never mattered. "If you didn't want me hanging out with your dad, why didn't you just tell me?"

Harry forced Liz off of him, stood up, and looked down at me. "I trusted you Peter. I wanted you to be able to fufill your dreams of being a scientist. I always worried you were just friends with me to get to my dad but I took a chance. I called you over and over and over again. You never picked up. I waited outside for you after school and you didn't show up."

"I was in a coma!"

"Who was the first person you came to see after your coma? My dad. Did you come see if I was okay? No. In those two weeks that you were gone Flash showed me the most friendship I've gotten in years."

"You're worthless, Parker. Not only are you a deadbeat and a fag, you're also a terrible friend. You deserve to be alone." Flash growled, standing up.

People were watching, I closed my eyes and started breathing deeply.

"Just leave, no one wants you here." Flash pushed me. Something snapped. I was done being humilated, I was done being a victim. I was given my power for a reason and I was going to use it. No more would people like Flash pick on me. Football wasn't enough. I needed to teach him a lesson.

I grabbed Flash's arm, carefully. "What the fuck are you doing?" He screeched. The music stopped and everyone looked at us. I clenched my fist in my one free arm and punched him, right in the jaw, as hard as I could. Blood sprayed all over the couch and on my fist. Flash spit out blood like crazy. He passed out on the ground and a few teeth came out. Liz started screaming wildly.


	9. Consequence

Nobody at the party wanted to call the police. We were almost all underaged and a good portion of the people were drinking beer or smoking weed. I was still in shock from how hard I punched Flash. I looked at my hand as if it was a monstrous creature. No, as if I was a monstrous person. I had always fantasized about getting back at Flash but when I actually did it was like nothing I had ever felt before. I felt... bad. For Flash Thompson.

Harry was the first one to grab his phone. He called the cops. Everyone noticed and started to run away. I decided to stay next to Flash. There was no point running, Harry or any other witness would've surely said something and I would've been caught either way.

Soon, the police arrived. The officer that arrested me was understanding. I started tearing up.

"I was just mad, I didn't mean to hurt him like that! I didn't know I could hurt him like that!"

"I know, son. Just work with me and we can figure this out." The officer said as he handcuffed me.

He made me take a sobriety test and found out I didn't do anything.

As I got into the police car I looked back at Harry. He looked as upset as I was. Probably because I had just punched his new best buddy.

So there I was, in the back of a police car on a Friday night. My best friend sold me out and told me I didn't matter, my Aunt and Uncle thought I had gone missing, I had gotten back at Flash and felt bad.

The handcuffs were chaffing me, leaving marks on my wrists. I had gotten so worn out from crying. I tried to be strong, I tried to stay strong but I couldn't help but panic. Just a few weeks ago I finally started getting along with my Uncle, I finally got the job I wanted, I was doing well in school. Now I was an irredeemable criminal that the whole world would look down on.

I pressed my head against the window. I just wanted to sleep. The more I stayed up the more I hated myself. Wherever I sad or hopeless before I could always be comforted by the thought of Harry or my parents. Now, all of those were gone. Now I just wanted to avoid everything. I just wanted to run away.

"Officer?" I said in a teary voice.

"Yeah, son?" He looked back slightly.

"How long am I going away for?"

"That's out of my jurisdiction. I'd guess a few months if his parents don't press charges. You'll probably get bail though." He looked back to the road.

"Thanks." I went back to skulking. I wish I could've gone back and just left the party. I wish I didn't go to the stupid party.

I wish I hadn't signed up for the stupid football team. I wish I never had to deal with any of this. The officer drove me up to an office building. I didn't know where we were and I didn't care. He let me out of the car and we went into an empty board room. He sat me down on one side of the room and he sat down at the other. He started doing some paperwork.

"Um." I said, nervously.

"Need to let them know you're coming. Also, they're locked down at night."

"So I'm not getting a trial or anything?"

"Yeah you will. They're held up though. You'll have to wait in juvie for the team being. Or before you get bailed out."

"Thanks, sir." I tried to support myself or sit comfortably while waiting but the handcuffs really limited my movement. I started to tug and even try to pull them off to make myself more comfortable. I used all my strength, just like I did when I punched Flash. I didn't want to be forceful ever again but I had never punched that hard before. I had never felt that powerful before. My powers were the only thing making me feel worth something. The handcuffs broke apart and my arms were free. There was a long snapping sound followed by metal falling on the ground.

The officer stood up and pointed his gun at me. I immediately put my arms up and widened my eyes. I never had a gun pointed at me before. I didn't know if my weird bullet-time ringing senses could help me or not.

"Uh, sir. I think I need new handcuffs." He put his gun down and looked shocked.

"That's never happened before." He said, optimistically.

I started closing my hands and opening them again. It was definitely no coincidence. The spider seemed to also make me stronger. I remembered reading something about how spiders could lift one hundred times their own weight. I wondered if the spider also gave me the proportional strength of the spider. That would've explained how I knocked Flash out in one punch.

The officer put new handcuffs on me and went back to his work. Eventually after sitting there for around thirty minutes, watching the clock and trying my hardest not to think, I fell asleep.

The officer woke me up what felt like minutes later. My neck was aching from how I fell asleep. He brought me downstairs to take my mug shots. The lady taking the pictures was pretty nice. She and the officer got along fairly well. They talked about celebrities with each other while I sat there waiting for them to remember I was there.

Eventually they showed me my mug shots and I looked like a depressed homeless man, which was ironically how I felt. I had bags under my eyes, my hair was all over the place, and I was pale.

After that, they left me to sleep on a loveseat. It was hard at first since they couldn't stop talking, but eventually I fell asleep.

I was woken up around five am, my eyes were heavy but I had no excuse to go back to bed. I sluggishly followed the cop to his car.

"We're finally heading to juvie."

"Yay..." I reluctantly said. I was trying to be funny, hoping it would make me feel better. It didn't, but the officer laughed. "What's your name, officer?"

"George Stacey."

"Oh. I know your daughter, she's nice."

"She's told me things about you, Peter."

"Good things?"

"Ehh."

"You win some you lose some." I sighed.

"I'm kidding, she said you were a good kid, and that you were getting harassed by some kid named Flash. Didn't figure it was a coincidence that the kid you punched last night had the same name."

"Yeah, it was the same kid."

"So you finally got fed up with his bullshit and decided to show him a little of his own medicine?"

"I guess so."

"I get why you did it, kid. Just don't stoop to their level. You consider yourself better than him, right?"

"Of course."

"Then don't fight to hurt people. If you have to fight, make sure it's to protect somebody."

We both sat there in silence for a minute thinking about what he said. It lasted until we arrived at the juvenile detention center, he let me out of the car and walked me in.

"I'll stay with you for a few but I've got to get home soon. If I don't the wife will kill me." I smirked and then finished signing in and getting searched. Eventually officer Stacey left and I was escorted in. He helped me feel more comfortable with my situation but I was still worried.

Eventually they let me into my cell block and a receptionist walked up to me.

"If you want to call somebody lemme know." She had a light Irish accent that made me wonder what someone from Ireland had to go through to end up working as an American prison guard.

"Alright, I need to call someone then." I looked down at her, she was short, even compared to me. She was about four feet and nine inches tall, meanwhile I was five feet and four inches.

"Do it then, you prick." The lady handed me the key to the phone room and walked off. She acted very bitter, as if something terrible had happened or life. Or maybe it was just the fact that she had to look over no-good kids like me.

I walked into the phone room, which was more like a closet with an old phone planted to the wall.

I typed in a number and waited for it to ring. Uncle Ben answered.

"Hello. This Ben Parker."

"Hey, Uncle Ben."

"You're okay?"

"I'm... In juvie." I heard a loud sigh on the other end.

"What did you do?"

"... This kid named Flash has been bullying me for years. Today I was tired of it so I punched him."

"He didn't fight back?"

"He couldn't. I knocked him out in one punch."

"Peter..."

"I know."

"You shouldn't have done that."

"I know."

"Is he okay?"

"I think so. He was still breathing and I don't think I broke any bones."

"May is going to have a heart attack.

"Can you pay my bail?"

"You could've killed that kid."

"He's an asshole!"

"You're the one that broke his jaw."

"You're kidding me."

"His parents are suing us."

"Screw him."

"You're just lucky he's not pressing charges."


	10. New Friend

_RIP Stan Lee._

One of the guards; Requis, escorted me and the other inmates across the basketball court to the cafeteria for lunch. We walked in a straight line, any movements they found irregular or suspicious would be called out. A couple of the kids spit on the court. See, the court existed but we couldn't actually use it. I assumed it was because of the weather but none of the others cared. They saw it as an empty promise, a mockery or tease of what they could be doing if they weren't there.

I was a wreck. I hadn't slept in the three days since I arrived there.k laid in my cell every night trying to read or sleep but I couldn't help looking back on the life I left behind. How promising everything looked just days before. A 4.0 GPA student with a best friend, a lucrative internship, and extraordinary abilities most people could only dream of. And I threw it all away for Flash Thompson. Uncle Ben refused to pay bail and if Flash pressed charges I would have a criminal record. Harry hated me, I left Mr. Osborn and Dr. Connors again, Uncle Ben sounded like he was going to disown me.

I stumbled around the back of the line entering the cafeteria. I bumped into the door headfirst while heading inside. I could barely walk straight. I was operating like a drunk blind man. Even my powers couldn't help with sleep deprivation. All the other kids went to the lunch lady while I just sat down immediately at the table and passed out, my forehead supporting my entire body weight as I drooled on the metallic surface.

Eventually my majestic nap was interrupted. "Hey, Steve Urkel!" One of the kids sat down adjacent to me, putting down his tray of old mashed potatoes and chocolate milk. I looked up at him. He was a large kid, not overweight nor muscular, sort of in the middle. I was honestly off-put bt him. He looked like he was thirty years old with his fully formed beard and receding hairline but for some reason he was there in juvie with me.

"...What do you want?" I whined.

"I wanted to find a jester.."

"And that's me?"

"I gotta smart one on my hands. Whadda know the glasses, tucked in shirt, collar, the whole 60s geek look isn't just for show!" There was a hint of sarcasm but I chuckled anyway. "What're you in here for?"

"I, uh. Knocked an annoying kid out in front of like fifty people." His eyes widened like crazy, then he grabbed my arm.

"You're kidding me right? You look weak as hell, no offense."

"Yes, you're probably right. It happened though."

I looked at his arms and noticed tattoos on his arm just like those of the mugger that was harassing the lady a few weeks back.

"You from Queens?" I said in a nervous tone. I didn't know if he was there to take me out for being a witness or what.

"Oh so you do remember me then." He smiled menacingly, showing his slight overbite. "I actually came over here to say thanks. You easily could have called the cops on me that day but you didn't."

"Oh, it's no big deal." I breathed heavily, relieved.

"I mean I still ended up here, but it was only for vandalism. I'll be out before the end of the week."

"Sounds good man." He started taking a bite of his mashed potatoes before wincing and reluctantly swallowing, then he tossed the whole tray.

"If you need anything let me know, my reach is far and I take care of my friends. Name's Dennis." He extended his arm, reaching out for a high-five.

"I'm Peter." I shook his hand.

"You're a lot stronger than you let on. Damn that grip."

"Heh. Sorry." I still didn't know how to control myself fully. "S-since you're offering, I could use a... job. I think I lost my last one and I need to pay for bail." I awkwardly said. I didn't like asking him for help. The only person I ever did that with was Harry.

"That I can help with, if you're willing to bend the rules a little bit."

"I'm willing to do anything to get out of here."

"I feel you, homes. Alright well." He leaned closer to me and started whispering. "I run a small time gang. We hustle people, distribute 'product', invade homes, all the good stuff. We call ourselves the Maggia." He leaned back.

"Do you kill anybody?" I whispered, worriedly.

"Not usually. Don't worry we're not trying to get that kind of heat." He reassured me, not whispering anymore. "Listen, I don't know what you can do for me but I owe you."

"I can do anything. I can keep track of your money, I can fight, I can be a lookout."

"Can you help us collect a charitable donation from Roxxon?"

"You mean rob them?"

"Yeah, some of the stuff that they're keeping in those warehouses is worth crazy money."

"I dunno, someone could get hurt.."

"Don't worry, Captain America." He snorted sarcastically. "Roxxon is an oppressive corporation that won't even notice losing a few dollars. I'll talk about it more with you when you get out."

"How much can I expect to get?"

"How much is your bail?" He smirked at me, charmingly.

"Alright I'll do it." I gulped, swallowing my pride. I needed to get back to school at any cost. Uncle Ben had to let me out if I told him I had the money. Maybe I could make things up to Mr. Osborn.

"Ayy! Alright. Next week on Saturday meet me at the Joe's Pizza near Midtown High.

The day went on as uneventfully as it usually does except with Dennis sitting next to me telling me stories. Then, around curfew I went to the dirty phone room and called Uncle Ben. He took a bit to answer and I started to worry. If he didn't answer, all my hope was lost.

"What?" I heard on the other end, suddenly. It was him.

"Listen, I know you already told me you wouldn't pay for my bail but-"

"Peter, you have to accept the consequences of your actions."

"I am."

"Then I should hang up."

"Hear me out."

"Peter Parker, I've heard it all. It's always the same excuses with you. Deflecting responsibility. Maybe this was good for you."

"Hear me out, please!"

"I can pay for the bail. I really need to get back to school and Mr. Osborn. I want to turn my life back around. Please."

"Why didn't you tell me about this money earlier?"

I stayed silent for a moment, thinking of a good lie. "Dad left me some money. I didn't know if I was willing to spend it, but I did some thinking and I'm fully committed to school now. I can get the money to you next week. I can also pay you for my hospital bills, and I can help with the mortgage or whatever. Please."

Neither of us talked for a few minutes. One of the guards started knocking, telling me my time was up. "I'll drive over there tomorrow." Ben said, then hung up


	11. Crime

Coming back from juvie wasn't easy, I almost preferred its peace, simplicity, and structure. I came back to school and everything was the same as when I had left it. No one even seemed to notice or care that I was gone except for my teachers. Harry was still sitting with Flash who was treated as a sick puppy by all the popular girls, and the guys treated him as a war hero. I couldn't help but consider all of the scenarios for why Harry would abandon me so suddenly. I didn't buy the story he gave me. Did Flash have blackmail? Were drugs involved? My imagination ran wild with possibilities I was too scared to confirm. I sat alone all week, the only thing to look forward to was meeting with Dennis on Saturday.

Mr. Osborn seemed cool with my absence, though he did admit they didn't get much work done. He said he wanted to take a vacation so I was free after school, bored out of my mind.

Eventually Saturday came and I went to Joe's Pizza. Dennis lead me to a McDonald's rooftop across the street from the Roxxon warehouses. "Don't worry the manager owes me." He consoled me. I was not the right guy for this job to say the least. Most of my life had been spent in my room reading books and looking at the real world as an outsider. The other gang members that met us were muscular teens with scars ans tattoos, likely raised without parents. Here I was, a white kid from Queens playing gangster. All of them were larger than me and more muscular.

Whenever I looked at Dennis with doubt there was something reassuring. He was a comforting shoulder to lead on. All the stories I'd read, all the news reports I heard, Dennis was nothing like a criminal. "We keep the order, Peter. We don't want to hurt anybody. We're like robin hood. We steal from the greedy and give to us, the poor." I thought over his words, carefully, sitting at the edge of the roof, next to the McDonald's sign as it illuminated me and the rain drops falling on my face with a yellow glow while Dennis caught up with the others.

"Maybe I'm doing the right thing. If no one gets hurt, it's one job and then I am done." I thought back to Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution. "Humans are just animals trying to deny what they are. I'm just another animal surviving. I have these powers by some crazy chance. If I have them I'm fit to use them for myself." I sighed. No matter how much I tried to justify it something still felt wrong.

"Hey Peter!" Dennis walked over to me, putting his hand on my shoulder. "We have a plan alright, buddy." He kneeled down next to me.

"Oh?"

"You know what I said about you being our jester?"

"Yeah?"

"Alright, the plan is I'm the king and those guys over there," He pointed at his friends, now grabbing their guns. "They're my knights. I'm gonna lead the attack with them."

"They're not going to hurt anyone right?"

"I'm hurt, Peter. Knights have honor. We won't hurt anyone unless we have to."

"Fine, fine. I'll lay off. What do I do?"

"You're going to what all great jesters do. Keep them entertained. Look." He bit his lip with his overbite and pointed at the window. "They've got guards. Roxxon is crazy paranoid. Everybody wants a piece of their stuff. I've been planning this for months." He handed me a pistol with an empty clip. "Put this in your back pocket just in case you need to scare em. Just waltz up there, look like a scared nerdy kid like you usually do, and ask them for help. Maybe say you can't find your parents or something. Meanwhile, we'll sneak up to the back and hold them up. When that happens, you start loading the containers on a pickup truck."

"Why did you need me to do this? Why couldn't somebody else?" I was curious why an outsider needed such a large job in the operation.

"You've got charm, you've got spunk, and you wanted a job. Simple as that. This is your chance to prove yourself." I didn't believe him entirely. I figured it was because if one of the other street rats walked up they probably would get arrested or told to screw off.

"You really thought this out."

Dennis smiled and winked. "Thanks, kid." He handed me a red ski mask with large eye holes. "Now get down there. Put on the mask when you get my signal."

I started to hyperventilate, then took deep breaths. "I can do this." I jumped down off the roof and landed on my feet. The others climbed down. I waited for some cars to pass, then walked across the street.

Dennis threw me a blanket. "Wrap this around you. It'll sell it more." I did. "Good luck, pal!" Him and the others walked around the corner, loaded their guns, and put on their masks. Meanwhile I stood in front of the building, trying to build up courage. I wiped some rain from my face and closed my eyes.

I knocked on the hard metallic front door of the warehouse. "Hello? Is anyone there? My dad left me at McDonald's yesterday and hasn't come back. I don't know where to go. I'm hungry and I'm thirsty and I'm scared." I noticed the others walk around to the other side of the building, out of sight. I started to hear mumbled talking and skidding from inside.

Someone opened the front door. It was a worker with baggy eyes and a five o'clock shadow. "What do you want, kid?" It was dark, he couldn't see my face.

"I don't know. I need food or directions. Maybe a phone to call my daddy." He opened the door all the way and the two guards in the building stood right next to him. I looked through the room, no other guards were in there. Just workers.

One of the guards put his gun down to grab his phone from his pocket. "Don't worry, kid. You'll find your dad."

All of the sudden a loud crash happened and Dennis and the others came in. The guard without his phone tried to grab his gun, I grabbed the pistol from my back pocket and pointed it at his head in a split second. I also grabbed my mask and put it on. The other guard still holding his gun cocked it and got ready to shoot me.

Dennis shouted and shot his gun to scare everybody. He was wearing a knight helmet from a renaissance fair and the other gang members followed suit. "GET ON THE GROUND!" All of the workers and even the guards put their hands on their head and laid on the ground. One by one. A pickup truck with a spray painted license plate pulled up. "Kid, you know what to do."

I nodded at him, put the gun back in my pocket then ran over to one of the chemical containers. I carried it over to the truck, cradling it like a baby. The others watched over the workers, while I put as many containers on the truck as possible.

"Done, come on!" The others started heading to the truck, running backwards, still pointing their guns at the hostages. Everybody jumped onto the truck, except for Dennis who started looting the pockets of the hostages. My head started ringing uncontrollably and the world slowed down. I looked around for the threat and saw one of the workers in the warehouse running over to a payphone. "Someone's calling the cops!"

"Shit!" He ran out of the building, clumsily and aimed his pistol, closing one eye.

"NO!"

An eruption of blood came from the worker's back, staining his white and blue uniform. One of the female workers started screaming. "Bill!" Dennis ran to the truck and hopped on next to me.

"Hit the gas!"

I started hyperventilating. "I thought we agreed not to kill anyone!"

"What was I supposed to do? Let us get caught?"

"I have to make sure he's okay."

"Fine, alright. You do that. If your share if the money gets lost though, that's not my fault." I stared him in the eyes, with a deep, firery anger. and then looked back at the warehouse that was becoming more and more far away. I folded my arms and sat back down.

"That's what I thought. Now come on, let's pay that bail of yours."

We stopped by an alleyway. Dennis handed the containers off to this guy he called Lonnie. He handed me a wad of cash. It was three hundred dollars. "My bail was only two hundred."

"I know. I take care of my people." He patted me on the shoulder. "We're gonna rob some houses next week. If you need some dough let me know."


	12. Corruption

*Inserted from George Stacey's diary*

"Alright, George." A witness says he saw something to do with the Tombstone gang." I walked down the station hallways, confidently. I'd been trying to get some evidence on the Tombstone gang for months. They, without a doubt were causing the most crime out of any of the known gangs in the city. Any evidence was helpful. Yuri Watanabe, my only friend in the force and my partner walked with me. "This is the witness." She continued. "His name's Lawrence Carmen. He's saying Lonnie Lincoln kidnapped his wife and turned his son into a slave."

"God." I said, under my breath. Thinking of my own wife and son.

In the interrogation room I saw an 5'10", Middle-Aged African American male sitting in the interrogation room across from Officer Ran.

"I'll start from the beginning." Lawrence started. I watched him carefully, he was sitting there, nervously shaking with his hands holding his head.

"Fine, just don't waste too much time."

"It was a regular day. Denise was reading her books so I said to her," He deepened his voice to sound manly. "'Ay Denise! Stop reading that smut. There's some gook outside saying he knows you or something!"

He then raised his voice and did a deeper pitch. "She said to me. 'Jesus Christ! Calm ya tits, Lawrence I'm coming.' Then she put down her favorite Nicholas Sparks novel and got up from her recliner. She looked excited to see him. Her eyes lit up like they did on our first date, when we was kids.

'Is that your new boyfriend? How big's his dong? Not bigger than mine, I bet.' I said to her, I did. Denise and I had been married for thirty years straight and she never once stopped complaining about me."

"Can you get to the point?" Officer Ran interjected.

"You're awful impatient, Officer Dan."

"It's Ran."

"Anyway, she spoke back to me. 'Aw shut up you sad old man.' She opened our door, practically slamming it against the wall.

'Oh, I'm the old one now? Y'know you could try treating me like a man for once.' I talked back, closing the door behind me, then I followed her."

"Here we go." Officer Ran covered his brow with his hand.

"I'll treat you like a man when you act like one. You know the guy in my book-Landon's his name-now that's a true gentleman!' She began walking down the stairs of our run-down, shitty apartment. Not the kind any man in his right mind would want to live in, especially not a man of class like me.

'Always with the book, you are. Living in fantasy land.'

'Why are you still following me?' She stopped walking and looked at me with her sassy eyes. Charming to me years ago, now a sign of resentment.

'I-I well, wanted to make sure this guy isn't your Landon.'

'You're real pathetic, Lawrence.' She kept walking and I kept following.

'Ok, but I'm still coming.' We reached the door and opened it. The man was wearing an fedora and a long jacket, he looked like a some guy straight outta an 80s mobster movie.

'Mr. Lincoln wants to talk to you, bitch.' The chubby fuck said to Denise. Who talks to a woman like that, right?'" He looked annoyed, raising his eyebrow.

"Please, keep to the essentials." Ran was really sick of the story. He looked like he just wanted a break.

"Alright I'll bring my confession to the Avengers then."

"They abandoned street problems long ago, big guy. Your best bet is us. Keep going."

"This wouldn't take so damn long if you stopped interrupting me, for Christ's sake. Anyway, as I was saying. I said to the guy, 'Nobody talks to my wife like that, except for me.' The rude, ugly bastard put his hand on my shoulder. 'Nobody touches me except for my wife either.' Pretty good line, right?"

"Sure, Mr. Carmen. Sure..." Ran buried his head in his hands.

"So the ugly chubby fuck talked again even though nobody asked him to. 'Man, I'm just here for business. He has your son.' Now I was pretty shocked. I hadn't heard of my son for a long time."

"Where did he bring you, Lawrence?"

"He took us in his jeep to some warehouse-"

"Office Stacey, the Lieutenant wants to talk to you." Will, a good cop who walked me around the precinct when I joined the force called on my radio.

"Thanks, Will." Yuri followed me and we walked back down the hall to Lieutenant Mueller's office. Just as I turned the door knob, a loud bang made my ears ring. A gunshot. No amount of police training can prepare you for the fear that a gunshot instills in you. Images of my family flashed before my eyes. Gwen, my beautiful and smart daughter. My son, so creative and active. My wife, the love of my life. Our memories, the small moments, just driving in the car flashed before me. I wasn't the one to die though.

"EVERYBODY, GET DOWN!" Yuri yelled.

"No. No. NO!" The gunfire stopped. It wasn't an attack. It was an assassination. I ran back to the interrogation room, my gun tightly gripped in my sweaty hands. There wad a blood splatter on the white, tiled walls of the room, It started dripping, around the pieces of his brain. I nearly threw up.

Ran was standing up, smoke still coming out of his gun's barrel. He didn't look shocked at all, he stood there, hardened. His feet planted. Lawrence was dead. Sitting there, his eyes wide, like he didn't expect it.

I aimed at Ran. "Put the gun down!"

Ran dropped the gun and looked at me, still unfazed by what had just happened. "I was defending myself, George. He tried to choke me. I sat him back down and he threatened me. I had no choice."

"Check the cameras, Yuri." I kept my gun trained on Ran.

"George..."

"CHECK THE DAMNED CAMERAS!" She ran over to the computer. After a few minutes she came back.

"There's nothing. Either they were wiped or they stopped working. It's just static."

"You son of a bitch... You think I'm dumb enough to believe you're not working with Lincoln? Just as soon as we have a witness ready to reveal their hideout he dies by your hand, and the cameras turn off while it happens?"

Lieutenant Mueller walked up behind me and pushed my gun down. "George, I know you're shocked but are groundless claims. Officer Ran will stay overnight to write his reports and get a psych evaluation. I don't find it hard to believe that Mr. Carmen would attack him. He was utterly disrespectful earlier."

Lieutenant Mueller pranced back to his office without a care in the world. I holstered my gun and walked up to the roof to throw up. Yuri eventually followed. "Did you know they were dirty?" I asked her in a defeated tone.

"George, I'm gonna be honest. I've come to accept it as part of the job. I get to do a lot of good, and occasionally have to overlook a little bad."

"Ran just widowed a woman! Left his son without a father! We're just going to let that go? Who's next? You? Me?"

"I get it, I reacted the same way at first. You'll come to understand it. Some people are just above the system. Lincoln, for example. So long as you know your place and work hard you should be able to pay your bills and feel good while doing it."

"The force is supposed to be people's hope out there. Their protection. Without us never looking the other way, what do they have?"

"Hope is for children. This is the real world. There is no black and white. Only grey. Believe me, I wish things could be different. Take the rest of the day off. Go to your family. It'll remind you of what's important."

"I'll do that." I walked off in shame. I could have gotten a million better paying jobs. I chose to join the police to do some good in this world. Full of hatred, pain, selfishness. Now, I was part of the problem and there was no way out.

I drove back home. Normally I would have been happy to see the family but my spirits were drained. After I unlocked the door I found Gwen sitting on the couch texting her friends and Turner laying on the floor, watching television.

"I'm home." I mumbled. My demeanor and attitude was a cry for help. I needed to talk to someone, anyone who could understand. I walked up to Gwen. "How's school, sport?"

"It's whatever." She looked at me with her mother's blue eyes, and the same face that used to ask me to carry her on my back so she could feel like a cowgirl. She then went back to texting. I sometimes forget that the person sitting there is an entirely different person from the little girl I used to know so well. I wanted to tell her about my day, to open up to her but she was like a stranger almost.

I moved on to Turner. "What's up, Hulk?" The other day Turner was pretending to be the Hulk, one of the 'Avengers'. A group of freaks that leave tragedy and destruction everywhere they go. Fighting outside the law. After what I saw that day, I didn't blame them. The kids seemed to love them either way.

"I'm not Hulk anymore, dad! He's a brute. I'm the..." He stood up and extending his arms, his palm open. "Invincible Iron Man!" I chuckled.

"I don't know, he seems pretty full of himself." I put my hand on his head, patting him. "Alright, have fun."

I went to our room and laid down next to Helen, who was cutting coupons out of magazines. "Are you alright honey?"

"No."


	13. Origin

2:00 AM

Images of the worker Dennis shot flashed through my mind. I could have stopped it, I should have let him call the police. I should have helped him myself. I watched the news all night after getting home from the heist. Uncle Ben was incredibly happy to learn i was telling the truth about having the money, and a hundred dollars to boot. Apparently Bill-the worker that Dennis shot, survived. When I found that out, an unbearable weight was lifted from me. He could have died, any of us could have died if things went any differently. I never wanted to that again. The workers didn't see any of our faces, they only knew my height and eye color, which wasn't enough to build a case off of.

I went halfway downstairs to get a snack from the cupboard. There was nothing in there. Uncle Ben sat at the table doing a crossword puzzle. "Hi, we're out of food." I nervously mentioned, still standing straight by the cupboard.

"Peter, do you have any idea what time it is?"

"I couldn't sleep. Clearly you couldn't either."

"Have you seen the news?"

"Yeah, crazy what happened at Roxxon. Lucky no one died." I mumbled. I was a terrible actor. My heart was beating fast, if Uncle Ben found out I was dead.

"I couldn't help but think it was a little weird that one of the robbers was just as tall as you. Not to mention you came home with three hundred dollars out of nowhere, the other day. Were you part of that?" He had tears in his eyes. He had already made up his mind. This was the most emotion he had ever showed me.

"N-no, of course not. Those people are criminals." I started sweating and avoiding eye contact.

"Don't bullshit me, Peter. How did you get the money?" He stood up, banging his hand against the table.

"Ben? Are you okay?" Aunt May raised her voice upstairs.

"Yes, dear. Stay there."

"Okay, I admit I lied about my parents leaving it for me. I wasn't part of the robbery though."

Uncle Ben walked over to me and lifted me up by the collar. "Where. Did. You. Get. The. Money?"

I tried to stay as calm as possible. Knowing if I showed any fear, Uncle Ben would know. "I borrowed it from Harry." Uncle Ben dropped me. "I just wanted you to be proud of me. Think I was actually responsible for once." Uncle Ben turned around and I dug my fingernails into my hand, deeply. Causing my hand to feel pain. It was the only way to distract myself from how much I hated lying to Uncle Ben.

"I'm disappointed in you, Peter. It's good that you weren't part of the robbery though." He sat back down and started to brush his greyed hair back and forth.

"I'm sorry for making you wonder."

"If you ever see something like that happen, you to get help. If we can't do some good for each other, instead of just hurting each other, this world is hopeless."

I sat down next to him and put my arm on his shoulder. He was completely out of energy, slouching there like a humiliated, hopeless man. "So, why are we out of food?"

"Like I said before, the Thompsons sued us. We can't eat for a few days to pay for it. I might have to sell the house."

"This is my fault. How much do you need?"

"Peter, don't ask your friend for any more money. We'll figure things out. We always do. Just focus on your life and try to be a good kid."

"What if I get a job? Start working to help pay."

"Don't worry about us."

I walked back upstairs and went to bed. Even though Uncle Ben told me not to, it took me a solid thirty minutes of worrying about May and Ben before I fell asleep.

7:00 AM

I woke up five hours later when my phone buzzed. Dennis texted me telling me the meetup location for "tonight's festivities". Which meant house invading. I didn't answer him. Deciding not to go. I didn't need to get involved in a gang anymore than I already had. I fully intended to get a job that day.

I walked down the creaky, old stairs carefully, trying to listen to May and Ben's conversation.

"Maybe we should get Peter to help. We aren't making enough." Aunt May whispered.

"The boy already has too much pressure on him. Let him live his life."

I continued walking down the stairs, stepping on some steps twice to make it sound like I was coming down all of them at once. "I'm gonna go check up on Mr. Osborn." I said, confidently and excitedly, trying to hide that I heard their conversation.

I ran out the door and jumped up onto the roof so neither of them could follow me. In my backpack I had a disguise. My designer black hoodie Harry bought me, jeans, the red mask from the robbery, and Ben's old hiking boots. He never used them anymore, due to his bad leg.

Getting around was so much easier using my powers, but no one could see. Mr. Osborn didn't want anyone knowing about the experiments until after we finished. I could use my powers, people would just think I'm one of the avengers. If they knew who I was, there would be investigations and it wouldn't take long to get to Norman.

Then I jumped from roof to roof, all the way to Manhattan. If I could find a job anywhere, the big city was my best bet.

6:00 PM

I went from restaurant to restaurant, supermarket to supermarket. No one would hire me. Either because of my age or lack of experience. I made sure to take off my disguise when asking for jobs. Underneath I looked like a normal kid.

I climbed up the side of the empire state building with my greasy fingers leaving prints on the windows. I got my fair share of practice but I hadn't encountered glass in the suburbs. I didn't get much traction on windows since my fingers couldn't get a good grip. I would slide down if I stopped moving. I stood on the building sideways. The sun was setting and it was slowly getting colder. Especially as high up as I was. I started to walk up the building. My feet had less trouble, despite supporting my entire body weight.

Being up that high and out with fresh air was a spectacle to say the least. I took off my hood and mask to take it all in. I took in a deep breath. Being up that high makes you nearly free from pollution and bad air. It's an amazing sensation, it feels natural. It fills you with childish energy and wonder. You feel fear, looking at all the people below you. Once you get the whole view of society moving it's a lot to comprehend. People are like specks. You get the feeling that world is bigger than you, that it could move on completely fine without you. There's a flow of things you notice if you stay up there long enough.

I eventually got to the roof and sat down. I was over the sensation and just wanted some rest. I was interrupted by my phone buzzing. Which I had taped inside my pocket. I learned the hard way that climbing buildings and my phone don't agree. I tore it out of my pocket. The phone, only two months old at this point, had crazy cracks all over it. Dennis texted me again. "We robbing some houses around queens at 7. Meet us at IHOP. Should be easy to get there. U coming?"

I started typing back. "No." Then I started thinking about Uncle Ben and Aunt May taking me in as a kid. My parents died when I was eight. I stayed in the orphanage for a month or so. No one wanted to adopt me since I kept cussing them out. Then my Aunt and Uncle I didn't even know existed came to me and looked past me pushing the away.

Now they were in debt, on the verge of bankruptcy because of me They came to me in my loneliest, darkest moment, and I needed to do the same for them, any cost. I couldn't bear being a burden to them any longer.

Then again, I couldn't stop checking the news all day to see if the worker Dennis shot was okay "How many more people have to die because of my mistakes?" I thought. "More people are going to get hurt whether I go or not. If I go, the same amount of people will get hurt, but I'll also be able to help May and Ben."

I sat there in silence before another text came in from Dennis. "You coming?"

"I'm making sure I'm free." I responded.

I thought back to my conversation with Officer Stacey. "I get why you did it, kid. Just don't stoop to their level. Don't fight to hurt people. If you have to fight, make sure it's to protect somebody."

"I'm doing this for Aunt May." I kept telling myself. Then I thought about Bill's family and back to my previous thoughts. "We're all just animals trying to survive." I pulled my hair, then rested my head in my hands.

"I'll be there." I texted back in an act of impulse. Then I threw my phone into the wall. I started pacing in frustration, then picked my phone up again. "We're not killing anyone." I sent.

"No guarantees" Dennis texted back.

I groaned. "Ok, Parker. Think. Just, think. This entire thing is about Uncle Ben and Aunt May. I'm doing this for them even though they don't want me to. So maybe I'm just doing this for myself, to feel better about my mistakes. Instead of making them proud the way they want me to. I don't even understand myself anymore. I lied down.

I dialed the home phone number. "This is the Parker residence." Aunt May answered in a monotone voice.

"Hi, May." I replied faintly.

"Oh! Peter!" She responded, now sounding excited.

"We really need to get caller ID." I mumbled, sarcastically.

"We can't afford it, Peter. What did you call about?"

"I-I need advice." I winced saying that. I hate asking for help.

"Anything, Peter. What is it?"

"If you had to do a bad thing to help the people you love, would you?"

"Oh. I wasn't expecting something that heavy. Why are you asking?"

I rolled over. "It's okay. I shouldn't have asked you something like that." I grumbled.

"No, Peter. I'll answer, I was just curious. If I was put in that situation, I'd do anything to help the people I love."

"What if you had to hurt somebody?"

"It depends. Do you think your family and your life is more important than someone else's?"

"Thanks, I feel a little better." I hung up and walked over to my backpack. I grabbed the roll of duct tape and taped my phone back in my pocket, I put my hood and mask back on, and grabbed a climbing rope which I borrowed from my gym teacher.

I stepped over to the edge of the roof and looked at my watch.

6:30 PM.

"Thirty minutes to get to Queens. It's now or never." I thought. "I'm gonna stop them. I have to call the cops when they're in the act though." I dived down from the roof, all of the air blowing against me as I broke through it, like a rocket. The air slowly got less clean. Right before hitting the ground I threw the rope at a flag pole, as I had hoped, the rope caught on and continued my momentum.

"WOOOOOO" I yelled, joyously. All of the sudden, at the middle of the swing the rope snapped and I landed on top of somebody's car, smashing it's front window and denting the roof.

"Hey, jackass that's my car!" A bald, chubby man in a bear coat jacket screeched at me.

"Sorry!" I started running away, not wanting police attention. He grabbed his phone and started recording me, before I jumped fifty feet in the air and running from roof to roof.

6:55 PM.

I was a block away from IHOP I put my jacket, and the rest of my disguise in my backpack and left it under a trashcan. Then I jogged all the way to IHOP, freezing. Dennis and the others were waiting in a booth towards the back of the store. They were all eating.

When I walked over, Dennis stood up and hugged me. "My man, Peter!

The others cheered me on as well. He stopped hugging me and put his arm around my shoulder. "It's thanks to him that our biggest score yet was successful!"

One of the guys, Marcus I think his name was, grabbed a syrup container and lifted it. "To Peter!"

I awkwardly stood there sweating. "Can we just get to it?" I didn't want praise from them. I was there for money. That's it.

"Let me enjoy my meal! It was free after all." Marcus took a big bite into his pancake.

I got a bad feeling so I looked around the store and saw the manager of the store staring at us like she had just seen a ghost. "Alright, well I'll wait." I wanted to talk to her, see who I was really dealing with.

"Let me buy you something, Peter. You're my hero after all." Dennis said in a feminine voice, which sounded about as accurate as a fairy tale adaptation in 2018.

"I'm good. I'll meet you in a bit."

I walked over to the waitress carefully. She had white hair, dyed probably. I kept looking back at Dennis and the other Maggia members. They were distracted, losing their minds over what they called "white people shit".

I walked up to the waitress carefully. I wasn't good at approaching girls but I tried anyway. She looked at me with fear in her eyes, a primal fear. She was around my age, maybe a year or two older. She was slightly taller than me, in fact I was a little intimidated.

"It's okay. I'm not with them."

"That's not what it looks like. Leave me alone, you son of a bitch." She started to walk away.

I put my hand on her shoulder and cringed. "Tell me what you know about them and I can get them arrested." She turned around and her eyes were less wide.

"Do you WANT to die?"

"I can handle myself."

"I thought so too."

"Come on." I sighed. Looked up at her with sad puppy eyes.

"They killed someone I care about. They'll kill you too, if you talk."

"How do you know them?"

"Dennis is my boyfriend." I winced and bit my lip.

"That's rough."

"Yeah, it wasn't exactly my choice."

"I promise, he'll get put away today."

"Good luck with that." She went back to working.

I went back to the gang's table. Dennis looked at me seriously. "Parker, why were you talking to her?"

"She was giving me crazy eyes. Had to make sure she wasn't snitching." I had gotten better at lying over the past two days. He couldn't tell at all. I pulled up a chair and sat down.

"That's my girlfriend. She's a sweetheart."

"How much do you think we'll make today?" Lenny, another one of the Maggia asked.

"Five grand for sure, if we play our cards right." Dennis responded, taking the last bite of his pancake. "It's easy pickings. People have taken less security measures now that Moon Knight, Daredevil, and The Avengers exist. Those guys don't care about fat suburban mothers in night gowns though." Everybody cackled, except for me.

"What is the plan?" I raised my eyebrow.

"We break in a couple of houses, steal valuables. Lonnie's guy will pick them up and sell em. Then we get our share and the whole world is happy."

"Sounds great boss, now I only got one question. Where are we eating next?" Marcus chortled, cracking his knuckles.

Dennis chuckled. "Come on, let's wait till the AMs. It's too early to break into a house."

9:00 PM.

We waited in Dennis's car. He drove his girlfriend home. He kept kissing her and making shows of affection while the others cheered him on and she sat there silently.

1:00 AM.

"It's showtime, boys." Dennis woke me and Marcus up. I put on my red mask and put my hand in my pocket, getting ready to call the cops.

"Here, take the gun. It's got a clip in it this time." Dennis handed me the same gun from before. I looked at him. Not grabbing it. "What's wrong, buddy? You've earned it." He patted me on the head.

"I don't need it. We're just robbing houses, and you've got a gun just in case. If we all have guns things could escalate. If the cops end coming they'd shoot on sight."

"You're right. Smart kid." We made our way to some of the nicer houses. Eventually we settled at one with an expensive car outside and a statue in the front yard.

"This is it, chief." Lenny said. "This is sure to have some good shit in it. Call Lonnie."

"Bet, homes." Dennis called and the truck pulled up. Marcus kicked the door in and we walked in. I was in the middle while Lenny was in the back and Dennis was in the front.

"I bet one of there windows would've been open. You didn't have to make noise." I wanted to call the cops but I figured they shouldn't see me for that. Plus, I wanted to stack the charges.

No one was in the first house but there were tons of vases and a flat screen TV. "This'll make us a few hundred at least!" Dennis laughed obnoxiously.

"Hey guys, I know a really good place. It's a few blocks away." I tried to guide them closer to the police station.

"We should stay close to the trucks." Lenny crushed my plan.

"Yeah Len's right. Let's head to this place across the street. They got a big back yard and there's no cars. No lights on either. Chances are no one's inside."

"That sounds good." I followed them, gripping my phone tightly. They all went inside the house, leaving me alone. I was okay getting caught, it was time I took a little responsibility. I typed in 911. Then left the call button unpressed because I heard a familiar scream.

I walked inside and turned on the light. Dennis and Marcus were grabbing none other than Flash Thompson by the shirt. Seeing him instantly enraged me.

"Someone was home, Den." Lenny shrugged, leaning himself against Flash's kitchen counter.

"Yeah I've got eyes, Len!" He put his gun to Flash's head.

"Please don't kill me!" Flash was crying with snot coming out of his nose. I walked over and crouched in front of him. The site of him enraged me. It was his fault Aunt May and Uncle Ben were stressed, it was his fault I went to jail, and it was his fault Harry abandoned me.

"Hi Flash." I took off my mask, wanting him to see my face. Wanting him to be humiliated by me for once.

"Parker?!" He shouted.

"What are you doing, Peter?" Marcus shouted.

"Kid!" Dennis growled.

I stood up. "This is the asshole that sent me to prison. He's the asshole who's been making my life hell for the past five years!" The room was quiet except for Flash's whimpering.

"What do you want to do about it?" Dennis looked at me with dead eyes.

"Peter, please help me! You're not like them."

"You didn't help me when I was suffering. You kept knocking me down and down. Over and over again. You didn't stop until I lost everything."

"Pete, I'll do anything. I'll get Harry to spend time with you. I-I'll get you a girlfriend! Anything!"

"We're wasting too much time." Lenny said.

"You right." Dennis agreed as he made a snorting noise. "We don't want to kill him, that'll wake up the whole neighborhood. Let's just kick his ass."

"No! Help!" Dennis knocked Flash off his feet with one punch. They all preceded to kick and punch him on the ground. "PLEASE! PETER! HELP!" Flash screeched, he saw me with my phone out, 911 dialed. Just as he had hope in his eyes, I turned it off and ran away.

I jumped as high as I could and landed in the middle of a park. I sat next to a bench and started hyperventilating. I curled up in a ball. In some ways, I felt relieved. Like Flash had gotten what he deserved. At the same time, I felt guilty. Like I should have helped him. "He had it coming." I kept repeating to myself.

3:00 AM.

I decided to go back home and I was greeted by blue and red lights. They raided my home. I ran under the police line. "Stop, kid!"

"This is my house!" I yelled furiously. Lying on the ground in a pool of blood with a gunshot wound in the chest was Uncle Ben. "May!" I kneeled down next to him. Tears rolling down my face. "HELP! PLEASE!" I pressed my head against her. "You're okay. You're okay."

Officer Stacey walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. "He's dead, son."


End file.
